xanax

[robbie178]

Can taking 2 - 2.5 mgs of xanax every make you feel exhausted. I have no energy everyday. I'm either depressed out of my mind because I am not drinking or its the meds because I am taking it for anxiety but I am not really anxious all the time. Just tired. This gut I'm seeing wanted me to take 4 mgs for my anxiety.He says its the anxiety thatsmaking me tired or shall I say excruiatinly exhausted. I had blood tests and nothin showed. So whatever going on is in myn head or the xanax.

[Tink70]

Xanax = bad s5it.

[ibizan]

YIKES!Something is terribly amok with a doctor who is advising more chemicals liquid and other wise for your problem!I agree with dominosarah you need to find a new doctor ASAP!drinking on top of benzos can have serious and fatal consequences!You are not living again....you are slowly killing yourself with this so called doctors help!

[dominosarah]

What doctor in their right mind would prescribe someone to drink a couple beers at night being on those meds?  The doctor wants you to start living again and he has prescribed you a deadly cocktail?  This is insane.  You drank everyday for 6 yrs while taking zanax and then went cold turkey....first off you should never go ct of benzo's.  That is dangerous all on its own.  Find a different doctor and get some help with your depression.....Your life is on the line             sara

[hazyworld]

i drank beer every day for 6 years while on xanax felt great one day i stopped both cold turkey  been miserable ever since..last two years have either been on ativnan or klonopin..got neew dr in march putme baacl on xanax an d prozac and adderaall ,when i shared my depression is from not being able to drink he prescibed me to drink 2 beers a night and to start living again..kinda scares me with all the meds im on..but its only 3.2 beer and i used to drink the 6 percent beer with the xanx have any of you drank on benzos

[josh231]

yeah xanx will  der make you feel tired try taking itat night for awhile till you get use to it its a downer people fighting pill addiction somtimes takes it so they can sleep at night if i were to takke the lowest dose possible id be noddin off

[ibizan]

brain function will return billy...it did with me....so interesting when i look back at the milestones in my sobriety and the thinking changes for the better....at one year and the years after that.

[working dog]

thanks for the story....it's always neat for me to here others stories..i can see where a teenage sister could cause writers block...after quiting alcohol i sure don't have my brain functioning all the way back yet..i think one more year and most of the anxiety will go away hopefully giving me back my old energy and new inspiration...billy

[MJIthewriter]

Any suggestions?  I suffered major depression 2005-mid2007 after dealing with a gaming addiction... Okay no physical withdrawels, but it still took away my time and ability to think creativly while I was wrapped up with the game.  I felt like I lost my ability to write or imagine images and movies in my head.  I was also dealing with a struggling family situation with my sister being a teenager and me an autistic adult living with my parents and their conflicts. (I have a workaholic for a mother which put's strain on her stress level and those around her.)

Not to mention no health care there. My grandma was open to having me move out of state and live in her house.  I thought either I'm making the biggest mistake in my life by moving or making the biggest mistake in my life not moving... So I figured what do I have to lose? Things weren't getting any better where I was.

I took the move (at least three separate trips with my dad driving and me cramming his car ful of my stuff). I still get stressed, but at least overall it's calmer. I have health care and meds to treat the depression. Even better, around Nov. 2007 I got an urge to start looking at my old stories.

Just to my luck I realized the stories I wanted to work on were left at home.  I got one of them back after contacting my parents and started editing it.  While editing, that helped me visualize the characters. Some point I pulled out my rough drafts. (To be honest I can't remember if this happened first or the editing) and I just started typing them up on the computer.  In the process somehow I mananged to jumpstart my writing.  Not only that but got back into drawing my characters as well.

I did get the story I wanted to work on Thinksgiving break when my dad came over to visit. (he brought the usb hard drive it was saved on)  Then I started typing where I left off. In the process I became attatched to one of the characters. The one that takes care of my main character who is ironically a recovering alcoholic... Somehow when I was looking up the side effects to wellbutrin for my depression I stumbled upon this forum...something about wellbutrin and alcohol.... Then I found out there is an autism forum here as well...so I joined.
----------------------------
Moving may or may not be something you have to do, but you could start by looking at your old writings, see if you can edit something. Anything you see now that you missed then?  Or you could write about yourself and your situation.  I'm gathering stuff I write about autism when trying to reply to people's forum posts. I'm thinking it may be useful content for a book.

Even just writing here on the forum is a way of writing and getting your thoughts out.

[robbie178]

Thanks for the info. By the way I used to do some sports writing and have been doing some writing exercises to get my confidence back. Have any suggestions? Due to my alcoholism I lost all faith in my ability to write. I will be 10 months sober this month and still lack self esteem (big time!).

[MJIthewriter]

Here's something I found that may be useful. I actually read it a while ago when trying to come up with research for a character in a book series I am writing... I made my character suffer from PAWS as part of his road to recovery.

PAWS:
Part 1:
http://www.medhelp.org/user_journals/show/906
Part 2:
http://www.medhelp.org/user_journals/show/907
Part 3:
http://www.medhelp.org/user_journals/show/908

I found those somewhat helpful in effort to try to make my character seem realistic. (well as much as I can for a ficticious creature that isn't human, lol)

[ibizan]

Fatique is a by-product of mind anxiety = physical/mental xhaustion=physical/mental fatique!I think if u read different articles on PAWS u will see fatique in there.....ask Doc if he could give u Librium....to wean u off xanax.....klonipin just as bad as xanax....just had a client go thru alcohol withdrawal and some PAWS few weeks later...Librium worked better i think but i'm not a doc!Give the zoloft 10 days to a few weeks to work its way in2 ur system.....i hope this works...but u must give it time...and if zoloft not effective u can try something else....remember it took awhile for this to develop!

[robbie178]

my name is robbie

[working dog]

i don't get it ..fatigue is one of the most talked about symptoms and last a couple years in some cases..maybe read this site ...http://www.learn-about-alcoholism.com/      good luck...billy

[robbie178]

I forgot. Thanks your input and knowledge. I finally found someone who can make some sense and relate to whats going on. I did not go to rehab and get this knowledge. Again thanks.

[robbie178]

I just spoke to my Dr and he is going to call in script for zoloft. I tapered the xanax from 2.5 mgs  to 2 mgs daily almost a week ago. So the zoloft may help with the PAWS symptoms? Do you think that changing to Klonopine and then trying to taper off completely would be a better way of getting off the Benzos. I could switch over to Konapine if I want. The doc said it would be ok. Just wondering if it is better to be on the Klonapine then the Xanax. Is being agitated and tired a PAWS symptom. On the net they do not have fatigue as one of the symptoms of PAWS.

[ibizan]

forgot...symptoms of PAWS can last up to 2 years in very heavy drinkers.......i have seen folks alleviate it within 9 months with a variety of good rx's......
Zoloft,Celexa,Effexor,Paxil..each individual has  2 find out what will work for them!and no xanax!i see it create a lotta hell for recovering folks!

[ibizan]

Because ur body and brain tissue was habituated to alcohol and u felt normal under the influence.Addiction is a kind of brain damage.in normal brains a neurotransmitter called glutamate is released when a person xperiences desire.its a go sign.Counteracting glutamate is another neurotransmitter called GABA(gamma-aminobutyric acid)which acts as a control switch that keeps glutamate from overwhelming the brain....and  us.The desire to drink is dependent on the balance of GABA and glutamate in the brain.It is theorized that excess drinking screws up this balance bigtime!when we see a drink..or really think about it...GABA is allegedly overwhelmed by glutamate-urge wins over not drinking.The brain then gets flooded by dopamine..our king plesure chemical which opens the floodgates of the desire to really drink!I was told in inpatient in 1983 that it would take 2 years for my thinking to become normal....whatever that is!:)I had a miserable time with anxiety and depression and back then the docs would not give us anything..even non-habit forming anti-depressants or anti-anxiety agents!I am so glad u ppl 2 day can avail urselves of them...remember u did not get this way overnite.....and recovery and the healing of ur brain tissue from all the drinking is a TIMELY process!and all the screwed up chemicals have to re-balance themselves......it feels so weird i know....but drinking will only return u to the vicious cycle......u r riding out a helluva storm here.....but xanax will do more damage in the long run...as u r seeing now......like susie q said..there is better out there 2 try!

[robbie178]

Being educated in addiction could you tell me why I would start to feel normal again if I started to drink. I always relapse because of the feelings of agitation, fatigue etc. I read up on PAWS. The thing that I am concerned about is that it seems that the symptoms of PAWS come and go and with me the symptoms are not lifting. The only thing that keeps me from not drinking is I do not want to let the few people that care about me down and I guess myself down. Then again I did not get sober to feel like I am going to end up in a mental intstitution.

[ibizan]

I know about PAWS for day job is substance abuse counselor for 23 years and sober/clean 24 yrs!went to a seminar on it years ago and it made so much damn sense for ppl who had drinked/drugged for years and were miserable with depression and anxiety upon quitting!Many doctors don't know about it...the average med school student takes a sad amount of low continueing education hours in addiction and many times faced with it and unknowing!Both of u need to google PAWS and read about it....see if the symptoms match urs!

[robbie178]

I went to meetings everyday my first three months and then stopped going because I started to feel sick. My energy level was so made I couldn't get myself to go to a meeting. I am going to ask my dr today about getting on a good anti depressent. But then I am thinking that I may be suffering from this Post acute withdrawal syndrome that causes kind of the same feelings that depression and anxiety cause. I am so confused. My concentration is very made ever since I stopped drinling. I am not focused and have trouble reading, watching tv etc. The weird thing is that if I was to start drinking again my energy level and concentraion level would return to normal. Very strange. Would you know why that is.

[robbie178]

You are the first person that I have met in recovery that heard of post acute withdrawal syndrome. I am disturbed that my dr'sdo not know about it. I have been very honest with my Dr's about my drinking but since I get really anxious when I go to see them and my BP is always elevated by my anxiey they always harp on the anxiety and want to medicate me. How much do you know about PAWS and can symptoms last for months at a time everyday. I am on 2 mgs of xanax .05 mgs four times daily.

[susieq87]

Are you in recovery with a program?  My experience has been if I was addicted to alcohol, I had a addictive personality, therefore, unableto take anything mind altering substances.  Definitely, there are other things to take that won't cause you to jump from one addiction to the other or cause you to feel out of it all the time.  Anxiety is a part of getting sober... It is great you have 10 months, you are on the road to happiness.

[ibizan]

ok thats different....10 mos.sober is good!thats a lotta X there to take.....Benzodiazepines like X,Ativan,Klonipin very bad drugs for ppl with alcohol problems to take,habit forming and when they try to stop taking on own feels like head blowing apart.So did u give him a honest history of ur alcohol use?There are other good things out there for post acute alcohol withdrawal symptoms that can help minus the X.....google Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome and see if this info fits u......there are many annoying symptoms that can plague one after they stop drinking.

[robbie178]

I am going to talk to my MD tomorrow about my meds. I'm taking 2 mgs a day of xanax. I think I was medicating my anxiety with the alcohol. I loved the effect it had on me. I drank everyday. I was a typical bar fly. That was my comfort zone. The last ten months have been hell because I am not numbed out by the alcohol and I have to deal with the  consequences of my actions. I can't run to the bar and hide and I really have a hard time with  those aa meetings.  The only way I can explain the way I feel is that its like having a tootheache and when the novicane wears off your in excuciating pain. Thats just me. You may feel great after a few weeks and I hope you do. Are you going to go to any meetings? It helped me in the beggining and then I started to question things that were going on. It may help you though.